Thursday, April 5, 2018

Booker Book #11: Staying On, by Paul Scott

Paul Scott's Staying On is the
bittersweet story of Tusker and Lucy Smalley, the third Booker winner about British India. Tusker is an army career
man, moving from post to post in India, until the transition of power to native
authorities (one of the most touching scenes in the novel). This changing of
the guard seems to provoke his own personal “debacle,” whose details Lucy hints
at, but does not reveal, until the end.

This novel is all about endings. It begins with an end: “When
Tusker Smalley died of a massive coronary…” and spends the rest of the novel
setting up the intricate ballet that leads to this climax in a crescendo of circumstances.
Through the flashbacks, we get to know Lucy (née, ironically, Little, of a
mother née, even more ironically, Large), her sweet patience, and her iron-solid
core. We explore the relationships between Ownership and Management (and employees)
of the hotel where the Smalleys have been living for decades. And we laugh.

The Indian hotel manager is my favorite character, his
observations always spot on:

“Mr. Bhoolabhoy had often heard it
said that one of the troubles with the British in the days of the raj was that they had taken themselves
too seriously…if it was true about the British in those days it was equally
true of the Indians now; which would mean that it was being responsible for running
things that shortened the temper and destroyed the sense of humour.”

This is the funniest Booker winner so far, but the humor is
gradually replaced by a sobering sympathy for a couple growing old abroad, with
little hope of – or desire for – returning to the U.K. They have chosen to “stay
on,” at first for financial reasons, but also because they have little to
return to. They become almost a tourist attraction, a museum exhibit of the old
regime.